Please Pray with Me That I Would Be Motivated to Keep Going to My Goal Weight
The New Me!
Mom Update
Up Coming Travel
Event in A Box
201# Budget
Embracing Seasons of Rest..
How Well Do you Know?
The Garden
/ Embracing Seasons of Rest:Not
April 2013
Dear Ryan,
Spring has finally sprung! After what has
Storks: Sign of Spring
been a very long cold winter. The snow is gone...though we had a blizzard for Easter weekend...and the sun is shinning. Just in the last 2 days my grass has actually turned green & the leaves are visible on the trees. The warm weather torture of my cat Pepsi has begun...BIRDS sitting just out of reach ... SINGING.
I pray that this newsletter finds you full of the hope & power of the risen Christ.
In Christ,
Denise Johnson
Financial Support:
Denise Johnson
c/o
Mission Dispatch, Inc
PO Box 641
Edmonds, WA 98020-0641
*Please attach a separate note indicating for
"Denise Johnson"
Electronic giving:
Me: Serve The City Budapest
The New Me!
27 lbs lost
Start Date:March 5, 2012
Starting weight: 181 lbs
Goal weight: 145 lbs
Current weight:154 lbs
- Please pray with me that I would be motivated to keep going to my goal weight.
Contact Info
Os. Witosa 4/8
34-400 NowyTarg, Malopolska
POLAND
Home Phone: 48-182665899
Cell: 48-889-201-335
Home: 48-18-266-5899
Internet phone: 1-206-400-2999
Email:
Blog:
Sending Church:
Eastside Foursquare
Missions Pastor: Brandon Brazee
1-425-488-2500
Home District: Northwest District
Supervisor: Dave Veach
Missions Rep: Kaj Martin
Email:
Supporting Churches:
Valley Foursquare
Ryan & Holly Schlecht
Family Life Center
Jeff Dutra
Living Hope Foursquare (Coupeville)
Garrett & Silvia Arnold
Battle Ground Foursquare
Dan & Joy Russell
Evergreen Foursquare (Auburn)
Doug Bursch & Dan Behrens
Beaverton Foursquare
Randy Remington
Missions: Mark Nicklas
Gateway Foursquare (Salem)
Greg & Stacey Schaub
Church on the Rock (Gig Harbor)
Chris & Sandy Bayer
Mom Update:
To all the Pastors, Friends & Churches who have stood by me & my family during the past 2 years, as we have navigated through mom's illness: THANK YOU! I know that I would be hard pressed to hold it together without you & your prayers.
Just a brief overview of where we have been & the picture at the moment:
View from Harborview Hospital
- August 2010 Mom makes her 1st visit to me :)
- May 2011 She has a brain bleed on a walk resulting in:
- Brain surgery & rehab @ Harborview
- Makes good progress walking with a walker then..
- Blood pressure starts swinging radically & she is discharged being wrapped from head to toe in ace bandages.
- August - September 2011 Life Care Kirkland for rehab
- Makes good progress - walking with walker
- Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) causing confusion
- Hydrocephalus: fluid pooling on the brain
- Result confusion & lose of motor function
- September 2011 Harborview: brain surgery to put a shunt in
- Life Care again
- October 2011 Moves to an Adult Family Home
- Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) - Evergreen Hospital
- Back to the Adult Family Home
- November 2011 Making progress
- Getting bored - good sign
- December 2011 Contracts C Diff infection
- Hospitalized over Christmas through the New Year
- Brain shunt malfunctions must be removed
- January - February 2012 Harborview
- Remove old shunt (brain surgery #3)
- Wait...to see if she can live without it
- Put new shunt in (brain surgery #4)
- February 2012 Move to new Adult Family Home
- Makes good progress walking with walker
- Clear thinking - bored
- September 2012
- Start process for move to Assisted Living
- Walks into Assisted Living with walker for visitation
- Gets herself in & out of cars
- Goes to her friends for patio lunchen
- Put house on the market
- October 2012
- House sells
- Moves to Assisted Living
- Continues to make progress
- Eating
- Feels like she is at home
- December 2012 Evergreen Hospital
- Has a spell as a result of muscle relaxants
- Losing control of bowels
- Strong, painful spasms in her legs
- Needs braces
- UTI
- January 2013 Harborview
- Back surgery to fix the fluid pooling (cysts) in her spine that is causing the spasms etc. (spine surgery #1)
- After surgery no change
- Increased confusion
- Second surgery to put a shunt in a second cyst
- Some improvement
Mom's new living room
- January - April 2013 Life Care of Kirkland
- Made steady progress but...
- April 2013 Moved Home to the Assisted Living
- Discovery of multiple cysts down her spine
- Surgery not recommended
- Returned to Assisted Living worse then how she left
- That she will be well enough to go with me & hersister to Malbak's for lunch in June (her goal in January).
- That she would make enough progress to be able to stay in her home at the Assist Living.
Eastside Foursquare:
tsidechurch.org
Brandon Brazee, Bob Horn, Ben Vendelin, Angela van Lierope & DJ Vick
As you continue to remember my mom & family in prayer I ask that you include my friendPastor Garrett
& his family as they battle many of the same challenges (infections, neurological complications) as we do.
Pastor Garrett w/ the Girls
We here in Poland continue to stand in
prayer withGarrett, Sylvia, the entire Arnold family &ourLiving Hope family. Pray for safe & uneventful travels as Pastor Garrett & Pastor Sylvia travel to their son's graduation from college in LA.
Up Coming Travel/Events
In the New Year
- Christmas - JuleBakken Deliveries
25 Tasty Plates of Gifts
- Speaking @ the Homeless Church in Krakow
- Speaking @ the school of the pastor from Piekary
- Attend southern area Pastor's Meeting 1/6/2013
- Attend all Poland Pastor's Meeting 2/7-9/2013 in Lodz
- Easter w/ Ken & Linda in Slovakia 3/27-31/2013 CANCELLED - SICK
- YWAM Family Forum 3/20-23/2013 Budapest
- Foursquare Europe Conference & Missionary retreat Budapest 4/18-23/2013
USA bound: May 16 - July 2, 2013
5/16 - 18, 24 - 26 Raleigh, NC
5/18 - 24 Crosspointe Pastor's Retreat
5/26 - 31 Orlando FL Foursquare Convention
5/31 - 6/3 Los Angeles
6/3 - 7/2 Northwest: WA/OR
* Ifyou would like to get together or have me share in your church, prayer group or Bible Study please contact me ASAP... as time is limited
Foursquare Convention in Orlando, FL
Praise the Lord for a great ticket cheap!
Needed: Car
European Union Grant!
August 16 -24 I will be co-presenting a teacher/youth worker training. This grant was written by Natalia & Magda. This training has the potential of touching hundreds of lives throughout Europe with hope. Pray for wisdom, clarity & unity.
Dance
Event in A Box
Some of you have been asking about short term opportunities & I think I have finally come up with away to do it.
An "Event in A Box"
You may remember the short term team from Eastside church that came last year & helped with a St. Patrick's Day Event. They provided the extra hands needed to pull off an event in the community for nearly 100 people.
I would like to do something like that every quarter or 3 times a year. If you, your church, Bible Study group, group of friends, or a number of individuals from your district would like to come help let me know. I have ideas for every season:
- Fall:Harvest Party, Columbus - Pursue your dream, Thanksgiving
- Winter: New Year's Family party, Valentine's Day Couples Dinner Night out
- Spring: Messianic Seder,
- Summer: Baseball camp
Thank You for Your Prayers
& Support
2012 Budget, Support & Economic Indicators:
Target: $3300*/$39600 mo/yr
Year End Total: $40,656
Exchange average: 3.2 PLN = $1
Fuel average: 5.56/liter = $ 6.60/gal
Winter heating costs: $1100
2013 Budget
Target: $3750/$45,000* mo/yr
*Budget increase due to the following expense:
- Increase of heating costs
- $1000 increase in health insurance
- More trips to US due to mom's health
- More travel within & outside of Poland
Mom during this long illness & recovery, as well as, the restoration of my home in Poland ... The continuous work in Poland. Thank you just doesn't express all my gratefulness.
To donate on-line
/ Embracing Seasons of Rest: Not
Embracing the opportunities that I have to rest are not my strong suit. Growing up in the suburbs...lets just say...I know about grass. I'm not good with house plants. At the moment I have three: 2 that are actually alive & 1 that is hanging on by a thread. And gardens...well...like I said I know about grass.My dad's goal was that our grass looked like a golf course.So I learned about grass.
Coming from Seattle I didn't know much about seasons either. I knew about many types of rain: light rain, mist, drizzle, partly cloudy, partly sunny, etc. And every Seattlite's favorite "The Mountain is out".
"The Mountain"
But as far as growing things & growing seasons I don't know much.
The same is true about "Rest". I know about work, study, giving of myself, being available for others, making the most of every opportunity...but REST...Not so much.
To be honest I don't really know how to make good choices that are restful & at the same rejuvenating. Afterwards I feel tired & I proceed to beat myself up for not using my time more wisely. Or I hear all sorts of "I should have" phrases in my head that make me more tired & defeat the whole purpose of rest time.
This last winter was particularly hard & snowy. And it was during this time that the Lord gave me a season of Rest. A time when I didn't have much "planned" on my calendar. But I didn't recognize & honor it ... I didn't Embrace it as the gift it was from the Lord. I chose to worry about what I wasn't doing & beat myself up for not
Starfish in the sea
being more efficient with my time.
I seemed to be haunted by thoughtsthat I wasn't "doing" enough. That what I was doing wasn't significant. Why am I even here? What good am I doing?
Somehow, if plants could think & feel, I would imagine it would be similar for them in the middle of winter.
Fruit in due season
As I look back I realize that the Lord gave me the gift of winter. A time to be covered by a thick blanket of white fluffy snow (His love, grace & presence). Instead of snuggling in & embracing the "season" I squandered it on doubt, worry, self - condemnation, expectations of who I should be. When I finally stopped & listened to the Father's voice I began to realize that by not resting it was all to easy to miss the truth of the Kingdom for the lies of the world. My significance comes from whose I am: Jesus. My faithfulness to do & be the incarnate Jesus is everything. It was at this time that I was reminded of the story of the child who saved the starfish & the business man who questioned the practicality of the child's labor. As the child through another starfish into the sea, he said, "It makes a difference to that one". (To see the full story click here
What I do does make a difference in the individual lives that I touch :)
Blanket of snow
Like all seasons they all melt away into the next one. In the same way that Spring has taken off in a fast sprint so has my life activities, with travels, speaking engagements, new challenges with Mom's health & ministry opportunities.
I pray that the next time Jesus gives me a Winter Season that I will have the sense to fully embrace it with great joy...resting in the warmth of His blanket of love.
How well do you know your missionary?
Last newsletter I mentioned one of the ways to be a blessing to your missionary friends is to share your frequent flier miles. This newsletter I thought I'd give you another idea.
The better you know your missionary & can see them as a real person the more ways you can be a blessing. Some of us are culture nuts (arts,
Baseball Queen
ballet, museums, etc.), others are into sports, shopping & many of us like our coffee (tea). Like most people we don't like to be the center of attention & to just blurt out what we like, need, want, miss etc. But just like any other friend if you listen you will KNOW what is the missionaries favorite things (we probably won't go intosong & most likely won't sound like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music). It is also good to keep in mind the PLACE your missionary serves because that will influence what is available & what might be missed.
For example, I live in a small town but I can find most items I want need or miss...including peanut butter & brown sugar but they are much more expensive. So if you ask me for what I miss it is often difficult for me to think of something that I can't get. But well thought out packages are always a blessing to know that someone knows me & has taken the time to send something that they remember I like.
Other than church, family & friends the things I
Safeco Field
miss the most is SPORTS...American football, baseball, etc. I have been know to watch animated Seattle teams live in the middle of the night. I love Pastor Jeff's FB posts because he always has something about a sports team, event he as been to or something he has played. So if you have a missionary friend like me:
- Offer to take them to a sporting event when they are in the US.
- Pay for an online subscription to their favorite pro sport team.
"The Garden"
A building Update
The Lord has promised that this would be my "Arc" & that he would teach & lead me just as He did Noah.
And just like Noah I have no idea what I am doing...especially in a different culture & country. The laws are different & the way of thinking is so foreign from mine. But He is faithful to lead me down the right paths at the right time.
"The Garden"
The good news is that the building doesn't have a particular zoning. But that means that we would have to go before the city council & get approval for our purposes.
I now have an experienced Christian Architect who is helping to advise me on what needs to be done & what questions need to be asked.
The next step is for my church to get out of my basement. Rent a facility in town & start meeting the needs of the community.
Please pray for:
- A good size location for us to re
The Gathering place
- nt - cheap
- Acceptance in the community
- Favor with the city council
- Unity in the Christian community
- Favor with the building owner
- Finances for the purchase, renovation & start up costs.
There is a program in the Bellevue, WA area that is a similar to the idea of what we want to do, click below to see what they are doing:
A Fellowship of Pastors!
Building Trust, Growing in Mutual Respect & Supporting One Another
2013 started a new season of travel. It all
Sharing:Homeless Shelter
started with themeeting of the pastors from the southern region of Poland. As we begin to fellowship, we learned just how much we needed each other & that much of what we lacked was within the skill sets of one another.
English Class Bytom
What has transpired, is what I call the Great Exchange. Pastors visiting each other preaching in one another'schurches... bringing a freshness of life in the various fellowships, a sense of unity & oneness. All the while breaking down the feelings of isolation & aloneness in the battle we can have in leadership.
American quick & easy
My traveling/speaking has included:
- Krakow:Lazarus church to the homeless
- Piekary/Bytom: Sharing in the church & the school where thePastor also teaches
- Budapest: Traveling with the Pastor from Chrzanow to YWAM Family Ministry Forum.
- Chrzanow: Ladies meeting where I got to cook some of my favorite quick & easy dishes
Pastors of the Rybnik Shelter & Church
- Rybnik: I had to opportunity to see the homeless shelter there & preach in the church of 100 +/- about 1/2 are from the shelter. (80-90% of my sermon I did in Polish)
A Favorite Picture
Family Pizza Night
/ Denise Johnson
Ministering in Central Europe since 1986 & resident missionary in Poland since 1996
Called to bea personinwhom Christ dwells & makes a home among the Polish People. Desiring to exhibit His unfailing love & faithfulness.
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Denise Johnson FMI Missionary to Poland | Os. Witosa 4/8 | NowyTarg | Malopolska | 34-400 | Poland